Rubies Leak
by Peridot Tears
Summary: You are the strongest woman I have ever known, the only who has ever drawn my blood. YaoSun Shangxiang. -Historical-


_Disclaimer: Someday, you must tell me how you did it._

...

"You are the first strong woman I have ever known," Yao remarks, eyeing the blade she wields. She watches him as well and, in turn, stares at his sword, whose hilt protrudes beneath his hand. He watches, eyes flicking from her hand to her face; the smothered fury is in her eyes, smoldering in the black ash. Defiance tries to stare him down, but his years hold him still; he does not go down easily, strong his opponent may be. His heart thuds once when Zhao Yun shifts beside him, when he hears the tiny gasp from Liu Shan. He narrows his eyes, mouths at her, "Di yi ge."

She snaps back without words, "Ke qi la." Yao's lips twitch, as if tempted to laugh; no woman has ever faced him like this before, worthy as a man, and yet still a woman. Determined to keep bearing, he grits his teeth, tightening the muscles of his jaws—why laugh? ...And then again, why frown? He should feel betrayed, betrayed by the woman he sparred with beneath the moon, beneath the sun; only yesterday did they reached a point at which it was she who pointed the blade at his throat, the tip of it grazing his skin and drawing rubies; it was an accident, he is still sure, or at least she meant only to add to the exhilaration, the aftermath. It matters not: he has had worse. A worthy adversary indeed.

"Wang Yao," Zhao Yun warns suddenly, cutting the threads between him and the woman. Yao chooses this time to blink, nodding at the slightest. Even here, he can feel the young lord's trembles; Liu Shan in Zhao Yun's arms. This time he is awake and conscious. Perhaps it would have served better if it was so the last time this happened—Zhao Yun, fleeing an army alone with Liu Shan in his arms. He wants Liu Shan to be asleep this time.

His pity extends to the small boy.

He nods at the woman, addressing her directly: "Sun Fu Ren, why did you not alert Liu Bei of your leave?—and why bring Ah Dou with you?" He cocks his head at the small boy staring, now dumbfounded, at his stepmother. When she does not answer, he adds, "We will have to take Ah Dou back with us." He is going to Wu with you, he wants to add. Allies we may be, but we are still rivals. Then he remembers that Wu is also a Han kingdom.

"He is my son!" she says to him, sharply, so that her words sting. It is a misfortune for her, Yao notes grimly, tightening his hand upon his sword; do not unsheathe, he warns himself then. The knob of the hilt presses at his wrist, metal long gone warm. It is a misfortune, that he feels nothing at her words.

"And he is also Liu Bei's," he replies. And Gan Fu Ren's, he adds silently, in heaven. She sacrificed herself for the safety of her son—where is Sun Fu Ren's sacrifice?

She falls silent then; they resume their match, staring each other down, their blades trembling in their sheaths—it is him, Zhong Guo, between Sun Fu Ren and Zhao Yun, and the throne's heir, Liu Shan; them, and the rocking of the boat upon which they stand. The soldiers have withdrawn at Sun Fu Ren's own command, though more than one have fallen; their blood stains the hem of Yao's armor. He was only sparring with her the night before.

Finally she speaks. "How dare you try to accost me, so unreasonably." Her grip tightens on her sword.

Yao opens his mouth, but not before Zhang Fei, unnoticed before for his unusual silence, beats him to it, "Sao Sao choosing to spirit away back home with the young lord, without a word to Gege—_that _is unreasonable!"

Yao breaks his gaze away to send Zhang Fei a warning glance, relieved to see the man has sheathed his sword, leopard's eyes restrained. Zhang Yide, calm yourself! he snaps without words.

When he looks back, the lady has closed her eyes halfway, just so she can open them again when need be, looking down at the sea-stroked floor; tired, she seems. Thoughtful. When she looks back again, she replies, like a woman would, "My venerable mother is gravely ill. How can I not return to her in haste!"

"Then remember," Zhang Fei replies; Yao breathes a little, for he seems to have checked his temper well. "Gege is young, and cares for you. If you must leave, let him know of it!"

"So why not?" Yao challenges her then. He glowers as her as Zhang Fei is, as if asking, "So why not tell me—I who dare to spar with you each night, more so than your husband?"

In a flash she moves her sword; Yao jumps, alert by lightning, unsheathing his, as if for another playfight, but not before she lifts hers across her breast defensively, "If San Shu won't let me go"—what about me, Wang Yao? Yao protests for a moment—"then I have but to take my own life!" It goes to her throat.

"Fu Ren!" cry her maids, hurrying at her.

"Tui xia!" she snaps at them.

They obey reluctantly. "Shi."

"Niang!" Yao jumps again, at the child Liu Shan in Zhao Yun's arms; he is reaching out, understanding what will happen. "Niang! Niang!" A sob. Sun Fu Ren moves not. "Niang!"

Alarmed, Zhang Fei turns and speaks to Zhao Yun, in a hushed voice; Yao nods approvingly at them, though he would much rather join Liu Shan and the maids.

Zhang Fei turns back. "Then if Sao Sao so insists on leaving, we shall not stop you." Another sob from Liu Shan. "My gege is the great Emperor of Han Shu. If Sao Sao happens to remember his words, then Sao Sao will return quickly." He places his palm across his fist respectfully and bows, withdrawing.

Yao's heart skips a beat, and he only just stops himself from widening his eyes—so quick! They would let her go, just like that...?

A whimper bursts from Liu Shan's throat. "Niang! Niang!"

Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun nod at each other, and Yao swallows before nodding at them; looking back once, Sun Fu Ren has still not moved.

They withdraw to their boat, jumping over to it, as it has sidled up to Sun Fu Ren's, Yao still does not look back, even as he glimpses Zhao Yun holding Liu Shan so that he can call out to his stepmother, "Niang! Zao xian hui lai!"

Yao swallows.

"Niang! Zao xian hui lai!"

The boat rocks beneath Yao's feet. They are moving away.

"Niang!"

A flash of metal sound; Yao turns his head sharply only to see that Sun Fu Ren's sword has clattered to the floor, and she leans against the side of the boat, calling, "Dou-er!"

Looking away again, he swallows his tears dry; he has had the glimpse of the strongest woman he has ever known, the only one he has seen wield a sword and win—he has had the glimpse of the warrior melted into a mother. Even if she is but a stepmother, but a wife of a political marriage, now gone wrong.

But he, Wang Yao, China, is not of the Shu kingdom alone; he is also of Cao Wei, and Sun Fu Ren's own Dong Wu. Would he again spar with her, worthiest woman in the world, beneath the sun and the moon—would he ever again cross swords with her, happily?

The only woman who is not a flower—a dragon and a phoenix instead, and yet not quite; the only one who can give him the excitement of battle. Or could. The only woman who can ever draw his blood; the first.

On the way back to Liu Bei, ruler of Shu, Zhao Yun gives Liu Shan to Yao, who holds the child still blankly murmuring about his stepmother.

"Don't worry," he whispers into his hair. The boy stills, pressing against the scales of his armor, black locks tickling at his throat, where the tiniest line of brown is. "Your mother will be home soon."

"When?" the boy replies sadly.

"Your mother will be home soon."

...

He sees her again when she is at the forest, years later, when she leaps off her horse into the embrace of the river, just so it can crush her. Yao, exhausted from the throttling of Yiling, finally cries out, gives her the faintest kiss and watches her drown.

...

**_PT: Bleh. For the Historical-Hetalians contest on dA. I had an ass of a time trying to figure out which pairing to use—I wanted one I could write well, and faithfully to what I want out of such a pairing. Really, I even considered Alfred and Martha Washington, which I consider sacrilege—I mostly see them as a mother-son thing. I decided to obscure Hua Mulan as much as I could, since she is but of Chinese legend; as you see, Yao notes Sun Fu Ren as the strongest woman he has ever known here, the only one who can stand to fight and win. The Three Kingdoms period, the time period this is set in, is a long time after Mulan's supposed time._**

**_Sun Fu Ren is best known as Sun Shangxiang, her Chinese opera name—oh God, Beijing opera—which is even on her Wikipedia page, and what she's called in the second Red Cliff movie. However, an actual record says her name's Sun Renxian. So I decided to be discreet and simply call her Sun Fu Ren, or Lady Sun; that's how it's so in Records of The Three Kingdoms, anyway. She was married to the warlord Liu Bei, emperor of the kingdom Shu. Y'know, because Yao was having another civil war. She was the sister of Sun Quan, warlord of the kingdom Wei; it was a political marriage. Sun Shangxiang was extremely manly for a woman of her time, having armed and trained maidservants and being quite skilled herself. Liu Bei was always scared of visiting her, but she supposedly fell in love with him, according to Romance of Three Kingdoms, San Guo Yan Yi... Don't depend on it too much, brilliant it may be (and it is. It totally is). This follows the scene from the 1995 drama adaptation of Romance of Three Kingdoms, when Lady Sun is leaving for Wu with Liu Shan, who is to be used as a hostage against Shu. Liu Shan was Liu Bei's son, the heir to the throne. His mother, Lady Gan, had thrown herself a well when he, as a baby, was stuck with her in the midst of enemy forces so that Zhao Yun, a top Shu general, could carry Liu Shan back to safety without her as a burden. Zhang Fei was Liu Bei's sworn brother, hence his addressing of Liu Bei as "Gege," and of Sun Fu Ren as "Sao Sao"—"sister-in-law" ...What, I won't question your intelligence. Implications, implications. Sun Fu Ren was leaving in the first place because, supposedly, her mother was ill and wanted to see her an Liu Shan—a lie. Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei caught up with her while she was leaving by boat, and managed to get Liu Shan back. She never saw Liu Bei again after that, and never returned to Shu. According to San Guo Yan Yi, she rode out into a forest and drowned herself in a river when she heard that Liu Bei had died after the Battle of Yiling._**

**_By the way, just a quick note because I feel this really needs an instant translation: "Niang! Zao xian hui lai!" I'm not sure if the "xian" part is a childish lisp or if I'm just too partial to the word "tian" for this line, but Liu Shan shouts this in the drama. He's telling her to come back soon. Also, "niang" means "mother," or more like, "mom" if you didn't catch on._**

**_...Yeah, I love San Guo, so what. Since this note is long enough as it is, I'll just let off her—further info, and translations for the Chinese, will be given when asked for. Hope you guys enjoyed~_**


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